


Fool Me Once

by tbiris



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Fake Marriage, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-01
Updated: 2018-01-01
Packaged: 2019-02-26 06:54:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,126
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13230333
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tbiris/pseuds/tbiris
Summary: Victor is spontaneous. Except that he'd tell you he plans a fair bit.So what better to do to prove he isn't by fake marrying someone on a cruise?





	Fool Me Once

**Author's Note:**

  * For [domokunrainbowkinz](https://archiveofourown.org/users/domokunrainbowkinz/gifts).



> So this was done for my discord's secret santa for domokunrainbowkinz  
> It's uh. A bit of a rushed edit and all and I hope you enjoy it.
> 
> Based off the tumblr post: http://lesbianshepard.tumblr.com/post/153182037318/so-my-english-professor-told-us-this-story-last

 Victor sighed as he stared out onto the ocean. He listened, he was always listening. But sometimes Yakov just got so _repetitive_ that Victor might as well not listen. It wasn’t like it was the competitive season right now, so what was wrong with him wanting some off time? So what if he wanted to go and see the ocean? So what if that happened to be a few hundred dollars? So what if he decided to get tickets for Yakov and Yuri as well? He certainly wasn’t going to go _alone!_  
   
 He might be regretting it a little bit now though. He tuned back in a bit more. Nope, Yakov was still yelling about how spontaneous he was. How was he spontaneous? He bought the plane tickets and cruise tickets at the same time after all! It was even four days before the cruise would start!  
 “Vitya! Are you even listening to me? I don’t care if this is your vacation, but you _cannot_ just expect people to drop things and come all the time!”  
 “But Yakov, if I had booked them ahead of time, there would be too many tickets.” It slipped out before he could stop it. Ah, there went half the reason he _had_ dragged Yakov on this trip. Perhaps he was a bit too spontaneous after all. He watched guiltily as Yakov’s mouth snapped shut and he strode away, bitterness and anger in every step. Hopefully Yakov would take to the tennis courts to work some of that out.  
   
 “You really like sticking your foot in your mouth.”  
 Victor’s mouth twisted slightly as he turned to look at Yuri. “I’m not that bad!”  
 “I’m not complaining.” Yuri looked out to the sea. “How else would I get to see this shit? Doesn’t mean I have to play nice though.”  
 Victor sighed. “No it doesn’t. But I don’t see his problem - it’s not like I do anything seriously spontaneous.”  
 Yuri shrugged. “True. You could be like Georgi, fall in love at the drop of a hat. Knowing you though it would be worse.”  
 Victor hummed. “What like get married?” The start of a terrible, awful idea started brewing in his head. Partially because… well… He was bored. The boredom crept in by day two of the trip. Except that there was _no one_ fun here. That was what he got though for booking for the off season. He leaned against the railing, letting the cold wind ruffle his hair and the chill set into his bones.  
   
 “Yuuri! You’re crazy for wanting to come out here! You’re drunk!” Victor glanced over, jolting slightly as a Japanese boy _slammed_ into the railing, a grin on his face as he faced the wind and a bright flush against his cheeks.  
 “I’m fine Phichit!” He cried to the wind as the darker boy came chasing after him, one hand around his friend(?)’s waist and the other gripping the railing.  
 “Yeah! But I don’t want to have you go overboard because you’re drunk!”  
   
 Yuri snorted. “Let the pig go over.”  
 Victor turned and frowned at Yuri. The two turned to face them as well.  
 Phichit frowned as well. “Well aren’t you a bitter boy!”  
 Yuuri just let out another laugh. “I told you Phichit!” Fat tears began rolling down his face and Victor was struck for another reason. There was no reason for him to suddenly feel the pull to the two, but his plan was starting to solidify in his head.  
 “Would you like to try something crazy with me?” He tilted his head to the side.  
   
 Phichit’s eyes went wide before he glanced over at Yuuri. “What… type of crazy?”  
 Victor’s eyes kept getting drawn to the globs of tears falling from Yuuri’s face, leaving Yuri completely silent. Perhaps it was a good thing, Yuri needed to learn to watch his words more.  
 “My coach, who I brought here seems to think I’m spontaneous. Even though I booked these a week in advance. I was thinking I could _truly_ show him spontaneous. Maybe a fake marriage?”  
 “ _I thought you were kidding, _” Yuri hissed at him.  
 “Hush,” Victor waved him to the side. “Not a word. Nothing lasting. Just something to add a bit of fun.”  
 Phichit tapped his phone to his chin and glanced to Yuuri. “Give me your number. I’ll talk to Yuuri in the morning when he’s sober and let you know. Phichit looked Victor up and down. “The rest - well I’ll leave it to you.” Phichit grinned as Victor typed in his number before leading Yuuri away, a steady rock to his friend’s stumbling.  
   
 “You’re fucking insane.” Yuri stared at him. Victor beamed at him.  
 “You already knew that!” Victor laughed.  
 Yuri snorted and shoved his hands in his pockets. “Well. What are you planning to do for rings then?”  
 Victor’s face fell.  
   
 ***  
   
 Yuuri woke up with the his head ripping itself apart from the inside out and Phichit’s shutter going off.  
 “No,” Yuuri groaned.  
 Phichit hummed. “Oh, so you don’t remember Victor Nikiforov asking one of us to fake marry him for the rest of the trip.”  
 Yuuri laughed. “Phichit! That’s impossible! There’s _no way_ that Victor would be here.” Yuuri would have noticed with the way Phichit took pictures and made friends with everyone. There was no way -- Yuuri instinctively shrieked as Phichit turned his phone screen towards him, both of their faces grinning at the camera as Yuuri was over the ship railing.  
   
 “Oh my god! No! Victor fucking Nikiforov _saw me_ when I was drunk off my ass! Nooooo.” Yuuri buried his head in his hands.  
 “You forgot the fake marry part,” Phichit chuckled.  
 “ _Why?_ ” Yuuri moaned. “Who did I piss off so that this is happening?”  
 Phichit pouted. “Really? You don’t want to use this as an excuse to talk to him?”  
 Yuuri buried his face in his hands,willing his headache to fade away. “What would I _say?_ ”  
 Phichit hummed. “You’re right. I’ll invite him over and get things chatting at least.” Yuuri’s eyes went wide but he missed Phichit as he darted away, his fingers typing away quickly with that _damned shit eating grin_.  
 “Phchit Chulanot! Don’t you dare send that message!” Yuuri shrieked, setting his own head ringing.  
   
 “Too late!”  
 Yuuri stared at his best friend in horror and and buried his head under his pillow. _This was not happening_. They were just on a cruise to run away from finals - that was all. Phichit happened to get lucky with a Christmas draw. His job at the cafe sent him well wishes when he mentioned taking the time off.  
   
 He knew that Phichit was talking to him, but he really didn’t want to listen to him right now. There weren’t many things he could think of that would be worse than meeting an old idol of his. Okay, a bit of a current idol too. Yuuri still followed Victor’s career avidly, even though Yuuri hadn’t skated since he was little.  
   
 “Wow~”  
  _That_ voice had Yuuri jolt out of bed to come face to face with _fucking Victor Nikiforov_. Oh god no, he wasn’t prepared! He was going to _kill_ Phichit! His best friend had an apologetic look on his face, mouthing ‘I tried to warn you’.  
 “Uhm.” Yuuri stared at Victor. He was in his pjs. God he looked so disgusting right now.  
 “Did you just get up?”  
 Words. Yuuri could do this, he just had to remove the stars hovering in Victor’s eyes that kept distracting him.  
   
 “Y...Yuw.” Yuuri grimaced and placed his head in his hands. Oh god, this was _too_ embarrassing. And Victor was _laughing_ at him.  
 “Yes,” he squeaked. “I... “ Yuuri fumbled looking for words.  
   
 “It’s fine! How much do you remember about last night?”  
 Yuuri peeked through his fingers to see Victor smiling at him.  
 “Our Yuuri is a bit of a blackout!” Phichit chirped.  
 “Phichit!”  
 “Oh.” Victor tapped a finger against his lips for a moment before the smile returned in full force.  
 “Well I was wondering if either of you might be willing to help me out a with a bit of a prank?”  
 A… prank? Yuuri’s hands fell from his face. Why them?  
 Victor’s smile grew. “See, my coach thinks I’m ‘spontaneous’. But, I mean I planned this out over a week in advance.”  
   
 Victor had the cutest pout ever - how did Yuuri not have a picture of that? The image was slowly burning itself onto his retinas. He could hear the snap of Phichit’s phone. Oh god, he was going to beg Phichit for that picture later. Victor looked over to Phichit, one eyebrow up.  
 Phichit raised one in return. “I can’t just _not_ take a picture like that for my bud there. _Nikiforov_.”  
   
 Victor frowned a little and sank - Yuuri frowned and leaned forward a little. “Delete it.”  
 Phichit and Victor stared at him. Yuuri gave Phichit a small smile. Phichit sighed and pressed his screen. “What things I do for my bro.”  
 Victor’s gaze on his was intense.  
 “I… I’ve followed your career since I was eight,” Yuuri admitted. He was fairly certain that a flush was spreading over his cheeks.  
 “Oh!” A smile broke out on Victor’s face, but it was so different from the one before - how had Yuuri never noticed that before? Victor Nikiforov’s actual smile was something heartwarming, but this chilled Yuuri and set his head back to throbbing.  
 “You’re a fan?”  
 Phichit snorted. Yuuri gave him a look, that had Phichit waving his hand and stepping out of the room for a moment.  
 “I didn’t believe Phichit when he said we had met,” Yuuri murmured. His eyes dropped to his blankets - oh how long had he been wringing those? “He had to show me that selfie of you two. A-anyways. You said you wanted to plan a prank? Why would you need us?”  
 “Well,” Victor drawled out. Yuuri thought his heart would give out due to how quickly it was beating.  
 “I was thinking a fake marriage to be honest. Yakov keeps saying I’m too spontaneous, but I’m not really. So why not show him that!”  
   
 Yuuri’s mouth dropped somewhere around the word ‘marriage’. He stared at Phichit, who just grinned like a cat that got the cream. That bastard _wanted_ him to be awake for this. He could have just discussed it last night, agreed to be Victor’s groom, but _no_ he had to make _Yuuri_ be awake and sober to decide so he could fully regret this later.  
 “Uhm… w-w-which of us?” He was blushing. _Fuck_ he was probably blushing hard too.  
 Victor tilted his head. “Honestly, I didn’t really care because you’re both cute. But if you’re a fan already it would make everything more believable.”  
   
 Oh god.  
 Yuuri was asleep. That was the only reason behind this dream now. There was no other way that Victor Nikiforov would be asking him to marry him - even if it wasn’t real.  
 “You aren’t dreaming,” Phichit piped up. There went that thought.  
 “Dream?” Victor tilted his head slightly.  
 Phichit gave him an exasperated look. “Your biggest role model just asks you to marry him - even temporarily. What would you be thinking?”  
 Victor’s eyes went wide - and were those tears in his eyes. “I’m your biggest role model?”  
 Yuuri flushed.”I… … maybe?” He buried his head in his hands. He wasn’t awake enough for this. How could Phichit just throw him to the wolves like this! It just wasn’t fair!  
  He jolted as a hand covered his own. He looked up to fall deeply into Victor’s crystalline blue eyes.  
 “Yuuri.” The purr vibrated through him. “Would you fake marry me for the rest of this trip?”  
 A whine filled the room. It took a while before Yuuri realised that it was him and Victor was there, on his knees with his hands covering Yuuri’s just waiting for an answer.  
   
 His throat caught. “I… need to let my parents know.”  
 He was blind. He couldn’t see. All that was within him now was Victor’s face, his smile erupting into thousands of stars, cascading through his heart. They were both laughing, Victor’s hands still on his own.  
 “Of course,” Victor murmured. “I understand. Small might be better.”  
 “Uh. Excuse me? If you’re trying to prove you aren’t being spontaneous you need to go _all_ out!” Phichit declared, waving his phone. Yuuri squinted at it was that… a picture of them staring at each other?  
 “You should post it everywhere! Go all out!”  
 Victor laughed and looked back at Yuuri. “Whatever you’re okay with.”  
 “It’s just for the trip, right?” Yuuri mumbled. “As long as you explain after, it should be fine.”  
 “Okay. Call me Vitya for this trip then.” Victor winked at him and Yuuri was dying all over again. “I’ll let my cousin know and we can start setting everything up. Oh! Can I get your number and then we can text each other the plans!”  
   
 Yuuri stared numbly as he started to get swept away with the hurricane that was Victor.  
   
 ***  
   
 “Yuuri! Yuuri! You’re going to be late!”  
 Yuuri groaned and rolled over, his phone falling off of the bed with him. He rubbed at his eyes as Phichit slowly came back into focus.  
 “Someone had a late night!”  
 “No,” Yuuri grumbled. “Good dream. Memory.”  
 Phichit blinked before a small smile came across his face. “The cruise?”  
 Yuuri nodded and smiled as well. He glanced at his phone, it was hardly a surprise that he had that dream-memory since he had talked to Victor again for the first time in _months_. Their fake marriage had been surprisingly fun. It also didn’t turn into as much as a tire fire as he thought. It was wonderful publicity for Victor, who had all the fan forums going insane about who Yuuri was - before not caring when it came out that Victor was doing it to pull everyone’s leg about what ‘spontaneous’ actually was. He even worked in that stupid joke about spontaneous combustion that Yuuri told him. It wasn’t even funny.  
   
 Yuuri let out a sigh.  
 “Hey! Don’t be down! It’s Skate America coming up - who knows maybe he’ll come visit.” Phichit smiled, trying to pull another one from Yuuri.  
 Yuuri just rolled his eyes. “Right. Because Victor Nikiforov just _has_ to drink shitty coffee and will happen to poke by after work. It didn’t mean anything Phichit.”  
 “Right. That’s why you keep smiling at your phone after a year.”  
 Yuuri frowned. “We’re good friends! It… it was fun.”  
 Phichit threw him an odd look before leaving, reminding him to get ready or they would both be late for work.  
   
 The cafe was small, with small reading nooks hidden away. Yuuri loved them after he got off his shift. They had to put up the ‘no explicit acts - think of the children’ signs after a few incidents though. Usually he or Phichit would walk up and down regularly to further discourage it - and to also put the books away. There was the occasional book or two that went missing, until there was a tip jar marked ‘library missing book fund’. In fact, they received donations now and then - even students leaving their textbooks in the specific ‘ride and die’ section. Yuuri thought that was oddly sweet - even if every few years that section would have to be emptied out of the textbooks no one used.  
   
 So today, three days before Skate America, three days before he would watch Victor again (he booked them off because _of course he has tickets_ ), and Phichit roped him into doing the hall checks.  
   
 Phichit ended up being the one that had to clean up the broken glassware because _Victor Nikiforov was in the café_.  
   
 “Sorry!” Victor smiled apologetically, even as Yuuri smiled back. “I wanted it to be a surprise… I guess I should have texted.”  
 “I don’t check my phone at work. It wouldn’t have done much.”  
 The blush on Victor’s face was just as cute as it was before, if not more. Yuuri wasn’t sure if it was his imagination, but the last year, Victor just seemed… warmer in everything. Whether it was his press conferences or talking to fans, there was just something… different about him. Perhaps that cruise did him some good after all.  
 “Sit with me?” Victor pleaded.  
 Yuuri rolled his eyes. “Work.”  
 Victor slumped a little in his seat, looking out his sliver of a window. “I suppose, I’m sorry I won’t distract you.”  
 Yuuri chuckled. “I won’t _sit_ with you Victor, but I’ll be by again later - okay?”  
 Yuuri’s heart sunk a little as Victor didn’t even turn back to look at him. “I… okay.”  
   
 Phichit looked startled when Yuuri came back with a tray of glasses - not the ones he dropped earlier. Yuuri raised an eyebrow and Phichit couldn’t say anything as the hourly flood of students came in. Ten minutes later, there were two groups yelling in the front, and he was fairly certain there were two in the back when he slipped back to the hidden hall. The two groups there were arguing in more hushed voices. Being surrounded by books seemed to elicit silence - or something similar.  
   
 Yuuri barely said anything as he slipped into Victor’s booth and let his head rest against the table for a moment.  
 “Are… you okay?”  
 Yuuri turned his face slightly to face Victor and let out a sigh. “Just tired. I have a bit of a break now.” He adjusted himself so his head was resting on his arms and he could look at Victor. Oh, he was reading, a careful bookmark placed in it now and set to the side.  
 “I’m sorry about earlier,” Yuuri offered.  
 Victor shook his head. “No, it’s my fault for thinking… well. Actually it fits perfectly for you, so I suppose the fault lies with Phichit.”  
 Yuuri blinked. “Phichit… told you where we work and when.”  
 “Of course! Yuuri, don’t tell me you really didn’t think I’d come to see you when we’re in the same city?”  
 It honestly hadn’t occurred to him.  
 Yuuri turned red at the thought. “I… didn’t want to interfere.”  
 “What if I wanted you to?” Victor smiled and leaned his head against a hand.  
 Yuuri blinked and sat up. “What… what do you mean?”  
 Victor slid a ticket towards Yuuri, a shy smile on his face. “I mean…” Victor cleared his throat. “I’d like… if you’d be willing…”  
 Yuuri glanced at the ticket and couldn’t stop the laugh from bubbling out.  
 Victor half flinched back, his hand recoiling, leaving the ticket on the table.  
   
 “Victor. You know I’m a fan.” Yuuri stared at the ticket a little more - there was something different about it compared to his, but he couldn’t quite catch it. “Did you really think I wasn’t going to get a ticket for Skate America when it was in the city I lived in?”  
 Victor flushed. “Well. I didn’t know that you were here…” Victor cleared his throat. “I… was going to give you another ticket too, but Phichit laughed at me and said it wouldn’t be necessary. I had to bribe him to tell me the best way to meet you.”  
 “And he told you it was best when I was at work?” Yuuri raised an eyebrow. “I’ll have a chat with him about that.”  
 “He said you wouldn’t be able to run then.” Victor cleared his throat, glancing at Yuuri once before back out the window slit. “I’m making a mess of this,” Victor mumbled.  
   
 “A mess out of what? Visiting? I love that you came by to visit. I didn’t expect it, but…”  
 “Yuuri Katsuki will you go out with me?” Victor blurted out.  
   
 There was as time in the middle of finals, where Yuuri had had so much caffeine and no sleep that his brain had just completely shut off in the middle of a test. He had stared at the paper, without any thoughts going through his head, and completely incapable of doing anything for an hour. This felt awfully similar.  
   
 Thankfully, it was also much shorter lived than that time during an exam - mostly because Phichit came over and shook both of them out of their stupor.  
 “Yuuri! I need you back soon!”  
 “I…” Yuuri blinked at him and then down at the ticket. Dating. Victor Nikiforov.  
 “Okay! Five minutes! Best I can manage without you!” Phichit winked and moved to the next table, scolding a couple that was probably getting too heavy. ‘Children run down these halls! I will call the police on public indecency! I don’t care!’  
   
 “You… can just let me know later?”  
 Yuuri’s brain still hadn’t caught up with him.  
 “Just… don’t lose my number?” Victor shrugged on his coat and was out the door, the ticket still in front of Yuuri.  
 “Yuuri! Victor just left! Yuuri? Is everything okay?”  
 Yuuri had no idea what fell from his mouth - it might have been English, or Japanese… who knew.  
   
 Date. Victor. Wanted. To. Date. Yuuri blinked. Victor wanted to date, and Yuuri… Yuuri the dunderhead _didn’t say anything_.  
 “Phichit. I fucked up,” he whispered. Oh god, how could he fix this. Victor was going to hate him. He didn’t say _anything,/i >. How could he have done that?  
 “Go after him.”  
 Yuuri looked up at his best friend, eyes wide. Phichit just smiled and tilted his head to the door. “Go. I’ve got this, get your boytoy.”  
   
 Yuuri didn’t even wait to correct Phichit as he bolted for the door.  
   
 ***  
   
 A year. Victor stared at the ring now adorning his finger. A year since they started dating, a year and a half since they pretended to be married. Now they were _actually_ getting married. Not that anyone seemed to believe him. Twitter was amok with people laughing and betting how long it would be until the entire thing came out as a farce. Victor permitted himself just one retaliatory post, claiming that _Yuuri_ proposed to him. Which was true, and probably part of the reason that Victor just couldn’t take his eyes off his hand. Unless Yuuri was in the room, then his eyes were definitely on Yuuri.  
   
 He didn’t expect his small whim to evolve like this. For this feeling to almost burst out of his chest a year later. He glanced up to see Yuuri preparing dinner in the kitchen. Victor had offered to help, but Yuuri claimed he wanted to surprise him, and that Victor would have to deal with the tire fire of their announcement. Yuuri’s family was easy. He had talked to them before their prank, so when they got the call there had just been many claims of them needing to visit - at least that’s what Yuuri said with the most adorable blush on his cheeks.  
   
 Victor however… Victor hadn’t heard anything from the people he called family yet. It was entirely possible that they simply hadn’t heard yet, and Victor was reluctant to call them first.  
 His heart leapt into his mouth as his phone finally buzzed with a familiar number and he scrambled to pick it up.  
 “You kept the same shitty rings.” Yuri monotoned. “The same one as that fucking cruise are you _serious_.”  
 Victor pouted. “Yuuri was the one that gave it to me! Take it up with him! Besides! These… these are us, all of us.” He glanced over to meet Yuuri’s eyes with that bashful smile before he turned back to the stove.  
 “Yakov doesn’t believe you’re getting married yet.”  
 That hurt a little bit.  
 “Georgi and Mila say they aren’t falling for it again.”  
 Seriously hurt.  
 “I’m just going to say I’ll drag them all but if this is like your antics I want in now or I’m going to fly there and _kill you____.”  
 Victor’s heart erupted from his mouth, causing tears to fall from his eyes.  
 “D-da. We… this is happening.” A smile came over his lips – they came so easily now.  
 There was a hum from the other end. “Da. Let me know.” Then a click of the phone and Victor took in a shaky breath.  
 “Vitya?” Yuuri called from the kitchen.  
   
 Victor pried himself up from the couch to go and hug his fiance. He needed the comfort right now, as much as Yuuri wanted to surprise him.  
 “Bad?”  
 “It was Yuri.” Victor buried his face into Yuuri’s neck. “He said he’d kill me if this was another prank. No one else believed it.”  
   
 Victor looked up at the gentle touch of Yuuri’s hand on his chin. The press of lips to his own helped melt some of the pain and warm him throughout.  
 “We’ll have the rest of our lives to convince them.”  
   
 They would, and Victor wouldn’t change any of it for the world.


End file.
